Post Christians

Editorial printed on 22 December 2001

THE de-christianisation of Christmas continues apace.

Carollers still sing their hearts out at shopping malls throughout the Mid-West. Compassionate citizens seek alms for the poor wherever they can. Cathedrals, churches and chapels are already aglow with the true spirit of the season.

But where there is God, of course, there is also Mammon. Shops throughout the region are ringing up bumper turnovers. Shoppers are splurging either on the back of the boom or because they foresee a slump or both.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this commercialisation. On the contrary, there is a lot right with it. Consumer spending primes the economy and is therefore socially desirable.

No, the threat to the true meaning of Christmas lies less in any commercial excess than in the secularisation of the feast. For some people the season of peace and goodwill towards men has been reduced to an excuse for gluttony, drunkenness and debauchery. For others it remains the season of peace and goodwill but nothing more.

They take Christ out of Christmas. Thus, greeting cards, decorations and all the usual paraphernalia of the season bear little or no relation to what it's all supposed to be about. Christmas without Christ is like Hamlet without the Prince--meaningless.

It might be argued that the new secular Christmas is more in keeping with the tenor of this age of diversity--that it is more inclusive towards the increasing number of people of non-Christian faiths who have come to live among us. But inclusion and diversity are not about eliminating difference; they are about respecting it. Christians who use inclusion and diversity as an excuse for their spinelessness are respecting neither God nor man.

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